Citizens

While thinking about the umbrella movement, my recent leisure reading is Simon Schama's Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution.

Believe it or not, I started reading it in the evening when we had tear gas in Admiralty (oh, purely by coincidence), and I'm surprised to learn that I actually finish with this 976-page classic before the movement is over. In fact, as an amateur student of history, the book is quite a challenge, but I am fortunate enough to be able to apply the methods of Masaru Sato (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2014/07/technique.html) and did some preparatory reading several months ago (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2014/08/europe.html).

To me, the book is quite interesting after Louise XVI was arrested. Although the personality as well as historical details are remarkably different, I could not help myself from comparing the unfortunate King of France to Puyi (溥儀), the last Emperor of China. Along that line, when I read about Jean-Paul Marat, Georges Danton, and Maximilien Robespierre, the stories of Liao Zhongkai (廖仲愷), Wang Jingwei (汪精衛), and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) flashed through my mind.

My god. Are we still seeing these people around?